In the days since Jim Kenney said Islam “had nothing to do” with the shooting of officer Jesse Hartnett in West Philly, he’s felt the heat from conservatives. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio called his comments “ridiculous.” Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh referred to him as the “Looney Tune mayor.” GOP-leaning comedian Dennis Miller even weighed in:
Kenney clarified his comments from last week and responded to his critics today during a press conference with commissioner Richard Ross and U.S. Senator Bob Casey.
“What I said was the 200,000 Muslims in Philadelphia are not represented by the actions of (Edward) Archer,” he said. … “They should not be painted with that broad of a brush.”
Asked if the comments about Islam had been misinterpreted, Kenney said, “Misinterpreted by Republicans, yeah.
“I think our FBI and police know more than Rush Limbaugh.”
Casey and fellow U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey received a briefing from the FBI about the case this morning. Neither senator shared much in the way of specifics from the call with the investigators, but Toomey said the FBI was “unequivocally aware of no other threats.”
He said Archer had been “radicalized” and that “radical Islamist terrorism is not limited to the Middle East” and has been in “Fort Hood, San Bernardino, now Philadelphia.”
While saying law enforcement officials at the federal and local levels needed to look back to 9/11 for lessons on how to deal with the Philadelphia shooting incident, Casey said Archer was a lone wolf, similar to the assailants in San Bernardino.
“We’re seeing the rise of a ‘lone wolf’ problem,” he said. “All different types of lone wolf actors.”
The investigation of the shooting is still ongoing.
